Articles by Cherie Preville

Contractors seek products that are not only good for the customer’s application, but also ones that can be installed and serviced faster and easier. The recipients of The NEWS’ seventh annual Dealer Design Awards in the HVAC Residential Equipment category do just that.

Dealer Design Awards winners in the Testing and Monitoring category include Extech Instruments, a FLIR Co., which received gold for its BR250 video borescope-wireless inspection camera and bronze for the 42509 dual-laser infrared thermometer. The 233 Remote Display Multimeter from Fluke Corp. won silver.

Things have greatly changed in technology over the last 10 years. And while rooftop units (RTUs) and commercial air handling units (AHUs) have been around much longer than a decade, they too, continue to change. The units still execute their original duties, but some of the features and benefits they provide have altered over time.

The state of the compressor sector, as with the industry in general, is heavily affected by laws, regulations, standards, and codes. Many such laws that are enacted these days have to do with energy efficiency. It would be safe to say that trends in the compressor sector are riding the green wave as well.

Bill Phillips sets the tone at Island Temperature Controls Ltd., Victoria, British Columbia. It’s the caring that Phillips has for employees, which is reflected in how he looks after them, and in turn the regard that they have for him that earned Island Temperature Controls the award of NEWS’ Best Contractor to Work For in the Canadian region.

A variety of fuels have been used for heating throughout history. A new kid on the block is Bioheat® fuel. According to the National Oilheat Research Alliance’s (NORA’s) Website, Bioheat fuel is an industry-accepted term that NORA and the National Biodiesel Board (NBB) use “to describe a mixture of heating oil and biodiesel.”

The use of heating oil is not as prevalent in the United States today as it once was. The Northeast is the principal region where oil-fired equipment is still used today, though other areas of the country, including the Midwest and the Pacific Northwest, also have spots where oil-fired equipment is installed.

Particularly over the last year it seems, there have been many articles and ads promoting green. Some companies in this industry have already gone green, while many others have not, or not yet. The NEWS spoke with several people whose respective companies have gone green to find out how it has impacted their business.